Juggling with Gerbils
Brian Patten, illus by Chris Riddell

(Puffin £3.99, 7yrs to adult)

Brian Patten gets better with each new collection. He can be anarchic, subversive and just plain silly but is also insightful, thought-provoking and highly original in his use of language and imagery. "Inside the dandelion seed is a clock/Inside the egg is a chicken farm/Inside a fist an army waits/Inside a kiss is an open palm." Chris Riddell's marvellous illustrations are the perfect accompaniment to Patten's verse.

Charles Causley's Collected Poems for Children
illustrated by John Lawrence
(Macmillan £9.99, 8 yrs to adult)

A tenner is a small price to pay for a share in a national treasure so put this in someone's stocking this Christmas. Causley's rich and lyrical poetry begs to be read aloud, to be memorised and to become part of your daily life. Divided into eleven sections like Charm And Flower, Seasons And Festival, some of his best poems are in the Salt-Sea And Shore section which is steeped in his love of Cornish life and folklore:

"Mother, I hear the water/Beneath the headland pinned/And I can see the sea gull/Sliding down the wind/I taste the salt upon my tongue/As sweet as sweet can be/Tell me, my dear, whose voice you hear?/It is the sea, the sea."

First Poems
compiled by Julia Eccleshare
(Orchard, £7.99, 4+ yrs)

The Jumblies, The Owl and the Pussycat and The King's Breakfast rub shoulders with work from contemporary poets such as Wendy Cope and this one from John Agard "Call alligator raggedy-mouth, call alligator bumpy-bum/call alligator all dem rude word/ but better wait/till you cross river." This selection is a perfect introduction to "real" poetry for the very young but will also give much pleasure to older readers.

I Saw Esau
edited by Iona and Peter Opie, illus. Maurice Sendak
(Walker £7.99, 4 yrs to adult)

A true classic for the home, school or library, this chunky volume is beautifully produced and contains over 170 rhymes, chanted by children in the playground for generations. It is bursting with rhymes of insults and retaliation, graces, riddles, lullabies and lamentations. "I saw Esau kissing Kate/The fact is we all three saw/For I saw him/And he saw me/And she saw I saw Esau." An invaluable document of childhood it most certainly is but it is also a boisterous collection to be read and enjoyed by everyone.

Pet Poems
John Foster and Korky Paul
(Oxford University Press, £4.99, 4+ yrs)

This is the sixth poetry collaboration from Foster and Paul and it is brimful of vitality, fun and totally anarchic illustrations - a perfect marriage of words and pictures. John Foster is expert at choosing just the kind of poem to appeal to the subversive side of every child and Korky Paul's illustrations take each verse even further towards total madness. Take a look at My Dog or Beware! Beryl the Budgie. If this combination of verse and illustration doesn't make you laugh out loud then you must have missed out on the sense-of-humour gene.

The Oldest Girl in the World
Carol Ann Duffy
(Faber £4.99, 11 yrs to adult)

Signal Award-winning poet Carol Ann Duffy shows her remarkable talent and versatility in this, her second collection for young people. Her poems can be light-hearted, as in Irish Rats Rhymed to Death, or serious, but each is perfectly crafted as she introduces us to peculiar and intriguing characters and addresses both the tiny moments and some of the bigger questions in our lives. These poems that stretch the mind will appeal to adolescent and adult readers alike.